New York City is continuing its war against trash[4], this time with a possible styrofoam ban[5]. The legislation is being proposed by Ron Gonen[6], the city’s Deputy Commissioner for Recycling and Sustainability and it would prohibit all food-service providers from using styrofoam containers and packaging. If the law becomes a reality, it could keep thousands of pounds of to-go containers per year out of the landfills serving NYC.

[7]Photo credit: Marc Falardeau

The legislation that is being proposed is an attempt to eliminate the waste produced by businesses and not by individual consumers. This approach helps to keep the headache of laws and regulations out of the hands of individual citizens in order for the ban to be enacted more smoothly. Luckily, there is already a precedent established for this kind of legislation as other similar styrofoam bans have been successful [8]in cities such as Seattle.

Though this ban has been previously submitted as legislation, there is hope that new legislation will finally stick in the midst of all the changes and adaptations that are currently underway in New York City already. The ban will not only be good for the environment [9]as it eliminates a product that the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledges as a cause of health problems, but it will also be good for the city’s budget since it actually costs NYC more to dispose of the white stuff in the city’s landfills.